OpenRails and AI trains

[mdrinkle]

I am dabbling in activity creation using Openrails Track Viewer and TSRE5 Route Editor. My question is the AI trains I am adding should be appearing at different times along the route between Aldershot and Unions, however I have made it all the way to Mimico and not seen any of my AI traffic. Does AI traffic have to be on a path that is not a player path?

[Vince]

No. AI traffic trains can share the player path.
You should use the Dispatcher HUD screen.
It will show you where all your AI is and if any are stalled, the reason for the stall.

regards,

[motormaster532]

If you have a PATH conflict,your AIs might be stuck behind a Red Signal. As Vince suggests use the "Dispatch" window to find out and if you have to-clear the signal using the Dispatch window. A note of caution,if your AI path does not diverge from your "Players" Path,expect a "cornfield" meet. Here is another thing that actually happened to me yesterday on a Custom Activity for Niagara Corridor. I had a westbound AI passenger train stall at Ingersoll station. The signals were clear,but the train stopped in the station and wouldn't move again. I dont know if the switch node directly in front of it caused a problem and I have run into this a few times on other Routes. I cleared it off by having my AI not stop at Ingersoll.That solved the problem. Anybody else have this or knows why. Brian

[jonpd]

There is also a problem where traffic added in TSRE gets added to the TRF file but not the ACT file and thus does not show up in the activity. This sometimes happens to me. The workaround is while you are in TSRE make a minor edit to the activity information, that will cause the activity file to get written and updated.

Jon

[frliss]

There is also a problem where traffic added in TSRE gets added to the TRF file but not the ACT file and thus does not show up in the activity. This sometimes happens to me. The workaround is while you are in TSRE make a minor edit to the activity information, that will cause the activity file to get written and updated.

Jon

Thanks for the info Jon,

That's been happening to me a lot. Things are working fine now.

Fred

[IndianRailways1601]

If you have a PATH conflict,your AIs might be stuck behind a Red Signal. As Vince suggests use the "Dispatch" window to find out and if you have to-clear the signal using the Dispatch window. A note of caution,if your AI path does not diverge from your "Players" Path,expect a "cornfield" meet. Here is another thing that actually happened to me yesterday on a Custom Activity for Niagara Corridor. I had a westbound AI passenger train stall at Ingersoll station. The signals were clear,but the train stopped in the station and wouldn't move again. I dont know if the switch node directly in front of it caused a problem and I have run into this a few times on other Routes. I cleared it off by having my AI not stop at Ingersoll.That solved the problem. Anybody else have this or knows why. Brian

Hello Brian!
This has happened to me more times than I can count. I have found that AIs with comparatively more stops tend to get stuck for no reason. Unchecking some of their stops fixes the problem.

Swadesh
Bengaluru, KA, India

[Vince]

Hi Swadesh,
It could be a problem in the route you are running or with the rolling stock you are using.

First off, have you looked at the OR log and corrected any errors found there?
You cannot construct or test activities on a flawed route or with flawed rolling stock. I just wont do at all!

regards,

[IndianRailways1601]

Hi Swadesh,
It could be a problem in the route you are running or with the rolling stock you are using.

First off, have you looked at the OR log and corrected any errors found there?
You cannot construct or test activities on a flawed route or with flawed rolling stock. I just wont do at all!

regards,

Well the routes are, to my knowledge, error free. I've used the rolling stock for the AI in question in multiple other activities without a problem. There is nothing in the OR log file that particularly stands out either. I used the dispatcher window to hop into the stopped AI, and the track monitor read "Node: No Path" and said the speed limit was zero. My best guess is that it's some sort of path conflict.

Or, could it be that my overburdened low-end PC caused the sim to 'forget' the AI train's path? It does forget to load some textures when I play heavy traffic activities, so maybe this could also be a thing. For now though, I'm okay with the AI not having a scheduled stop at that one station.

Edit: Wait, you're THE Vince Cockeram! I'm a big fan of your PRR route!

[Vince]

Edit: Wait, you're THE Vince Cockeram! I'm a big fan of your PRR route!

Thanks re the PRR but I only cleaned up the database problems, rebuilt Philadelphia, cleaned up the Chesnut Hill line, added 8 turntables and added in Ron Pickardi's rebuild Altoona and added speed limits pretty much all the Northeast Corridor part from NY Penn to Washington.

I did not take part in the route merging and construction. I only contributed the NECv4 part of it. It took six years with five people working to bring this out.

It was a terribly difficult task as the MSTS Route Editor simply was unable to handle the large database files in a consistent manner, taking over a minute to execute a database save.
Enter TSRE!
As I am building the Long Island RR and was having . . . database problems with the MSTS editors I figured as I wanted to learn TSRE but didn't want to learn a new application on my pet project I chose the PRR-East because it was a very large complex route that I was somewhat familiar with and with all it's database problems, rogue red and blue poles by the dozen.

Remember I said the MSTS editor took over a minute to do a database save? Well TSRE did it in four seconds! Nuff said. There were minor development bugs but 99% good stuff!

The reason for this post is I wanted to clear up the misconception (big fan of your PRR route!) that it's 'my' route. Like I said I wanted to learn TSRE, figured the PRR was a good way to both learn and prove TSRE was indeed the shining new editor I've been waiting years for.

best regards,

[IndianRailways1601]

Understandable. To the entire NEC track team and everyone else who contributed towards the creation of the magnificent route that is the PRR-East, thank you so much.